Breed And Greed: Horse Racing Must Fix Itself

He emerged from the paddock late Saturday afternoon not long after Desert Blanc won the Woodford Reserve Manhattan Handicap. Led by one of his grooms, followed by the tear-filled eyes of horse racing fans, I'll Have Another slowly made his way to the winner's circle following the 10th race at Belmont Park.

There, in front of a national television audience, trainer Doug O'Neill removed the saddle. There, in one ceremonial motion, he retired the chestnut colt to the happy and fruitful life of a stallion.

"A fitting retirement for an incredible racehorse," O'Neill said.

This was not the winner's circle ceremony NBC so dearly wanted, of course. This was not the moment the horse racing industry so dearly needed. Before tendinitis was discovered in the horse's left foreleg on Friday, before the air was sucked out of the 144th Belmont Stakes, there were soaring hopes I'll Have Another would become the first horse to complete the Triple Crown in 34 years.

Instead it was Union Rags, the Kentucky Derby favorite who had endured more trouble in traffic this year than, well, Lindsay Lohan, who would find a degree of redemption by running down Paynter in the final 25 yards to win the Belmont Stakes by a neck.

The initial plan had been for jockey Mario Gutierrez to lead I'll Have Another through the Belmont post parade, but it's probably best the plan was scuttled. Horse racing already has had enough of its problems paraded in front of the world this past week.

So many problems in so many different states, in fact, that is had grown too complicated and unwieldy to drone on and expect anyone beyond the most dedicated horseman to read more than a few paragraphs. Good grief, explaining elevated carbon dioxide levels that have affected O'Neill's reputation alone would eat up the length of this column.

So we'll settle for this: O'Neill is far from perfect, but he is far from the only trainer with a history of violations. He got it worse than he deserved in recent days. Yet that's what happens to sports — like horse racing and boxing — that operate without national governing bodies and without enough national scrutiny until their biggest events periodically rush the big stage. Somebody's going to be the poster boy for wrongdoing under such scenarios and in this case, after winning the Kentucky Derby and Preakness, O'Neill was a big bearded dartboard.

After making the trip to the Belmont eight times since 1997 with hopes of witnessing a Triple Crown champion and watching those hopes disappear in nearly ever way possible, I can only draw two conclusions:

There should be one governing body to keep the sport regulated, organized, publicized and equipped to adequately explain the many medical and technical issues that dog the sport.

There should be more spacing between the Triple Crown races. As it stands early in the 21st century, there isn't enough stamina in the breed to endure the rigors of three races in five weeks. And as much as I hate to even suggest that 1 1/2 miles is too long of a race, that national body ultimately must decide if the greed of the breeders or the length of this test of champions has to change.

If a racing expert had been told in early March that a horse would be in position to take the Triple Crown in June, he would have told you it would be Union Rags. Caught too far off an indifferent pace, he had a bad trip to take third in the Florida Derby. He was bumped by Dullahan at the start of the Kentucky Derby, squeezed and dropped all the way to 17th before finishing seventh. All trainer Michael Matz said he wanted was a clean trip. And in a cloudy week for horse racing, he got that Saturday.

"We got to see the real Union Rags today," Matz said.

Mike Smith, who finished second twice on Bodemeister and again on Paynter during this Triple Crown season, blamed himself for the loss. He said a veteran rider should never allow himself to drift off the rail the way he did to allow Union Rags to slip inside.

"We always thought this horse had Triple Crown potential," said Matz, who changed jockeys from Julien Leparoux to John Velazquez for the race. "Whether he could have done something against I'll Have Another, I don't know. But it sure would have been fun to see."

Look, 34 years is a long time, too long without a Triple Crown winner. Yes, it's supposed to be difficult. It's not supposed to be impossible. An entire generation of potential fans, young, eager to be entertained, has been lost to the casinos and all the competing ways to dispose of income.

Derby Day, a Triple Crown race at Belmont, the Breeders' Cup, there are precious few days on the calendar when horse racing captivates the public. As Gutierrez said, "Before I'll Have Another, no one even knew who I was. He took me on an incredible journey."